SOUTH CAROLINIANA LIBRARYUNIVERSITY SOUTH CAROLINIANA SOCIETYMODERN POLITICAL COLLECTIONS

Ernest F. Hollings Papers

Activity over the past year has focused upon processing Senator
Hollings' gubernatorial and early campaign papers and planning
for the transfer of his non-current Senate records. Hollings'
gubernatorial papers are divided between the South Caroliniana
Library and the South Carolina Department of Archives and
History. Through an unprecedented arrangement with the Archives,
their holdings of Hollings' gubernatorial papers, which had not
been processed, were transferred to Modern Political Collections
for processing. The division has now completed processing both
sets of records and is currently preparing a single finding aid.

Campaign records from 1962 and 1966 have also been arranged and
described. The 1962 Senate race pitted the popular young
governor against the powerful veteran, Olin D. Johnston.
Excellent documentation includes correspondence plotting campaign
strategy and opposition research. Johnston retained his seat,
defeating Hollings with a significant majority of the vote in the
Democratic primary.

Olin Johnston died in 1965, and his Senate seat was filled by
Governor Donald Russell until a special election could be held
the following year. That Democratic primary saw a tough race
between Russell and Hollings. The two men had faced each other
before, in Hollings' victorious 1958 campaign for governor. As
before, Hollings emerged victorious and in the general election
won a close race against Republican nominee Marshall Parker, an
Oconee dairyman and state senator.

Hollings' early interest in the vacated Johnston seat, campaign
strategy, and the political climate in South Carolina are
discussed with great candor in correspondence files, 1964-1966.
Most of the letters deal with the Democratic primary rather than
the general election. Of particular interest are numerous
responses to an inquiry distributed to Hollings' supporters early
in 1966 that posed the question of his challenge to Donald
Russell and sought their evaluation of his chances. Responses
from virtually every county across the state give insight into
the political climate of the time. Comments are not limited to
the upcoming Senate race, but cover the whole spectrum of South
Carolina politics in the mid-1960s.

It is expected that these gubernatorial and campaign records,
along with additional campaign records, 1950-1968, will be opened
to researchers later this year.